npm outdated -g Error 'Cannot read property 'length' of undefined'

Question

I am trying to determine the version status of my npm installed global packages. After running the npm outdated -g --depth=0 in the terminal I receive this error:

npm ERR! Cannot read property 'length' of undefined

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/dangranger/.npm/_logs/2019-03-14T21_58_37_962Z-debug.log

Contents of /Users/dangranger/.npm/_logs/2019-03-14T21_58_37_962Z-debug.log

0 info it worked if it ends with ok
1 verbose cli [ '/usr/local/Cellar/node/11.11.0/bin/node',
1 verbose cli   '/usr/local/bin/npm',
1 verbose cli   'outdated',
1 verbose cli   '-g' ]
2 info using [email protected]
3 info using [email protected]
4 verbose npm-session 6182351d371bfeb5
5 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/http-server 597ms (from cache)
6 silly pacote registry packument for http-server@^0.11.1 fetched in 616ms
7 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/p5-manager 596ms (from cache)
8 silly pacote registry packument for p5-manager@^0.4.2 fetched in 618ms
9 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/hpm-cli 603ms (from cache)
10 silly pacote registry packument for hpm-cli@^2.0.1 fetched in 621ms
11 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/create-react-app 613ms (from cache)
12 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/local-npm 607ms (from cache)
13 silly pacote registry packument for create-react-app@^2.1.1 fetched in 628ms
14 silly pacote registry packument for local-npm@^2.2.2 fetched in 627ms
15 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/node-gyp 610ms (from cache)
16 silly pacote registry packument for node-gyp@^3.8.0 fetched in 631ms
17 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/bower 623ms (from cache)
18 silly pacote registry packument for bower@^1.8.4 fetched in 638ms
19 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/yarn 612ms (from cache)
20 silly pacote registry packument for yarn@^1.12.3 fetched in 635ms
21 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/gatsby-cli 622ms (from cache)
22 silly pacote registry packument for gatsby-cli@^2.4.15 fetched in 641ms
23 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/nodemon 620ms (from cache)
24 silly pacote registry packument for nodemon@^1.18.7 fetched in 644ms
25 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/eslint 633ms (from cache)
26 silly pacote registry packument for eslint@^5.9.0 fetched in 653ms
27 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/snyk 633ms (from cache)
28 silly pacote registry packument for snyk@^1.112.0 fetched in 662ms
29 http fetch GET 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/npm 647ms (from cache)
30 silly pacote registry packument for npm@^6.9.0 fetched in 682ms
31 verbose stack TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of undefined
31 verbose stack     at dotindex (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/text-table/index.js:59:32)
31 verbose stack     at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/text-table/index.js:11:21
31 verbose stack     at Array.forEach (<anonymous>)
31 verbose stack     at forEach (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/text-table/index.js:73:31)
31 verbose stack     at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/text-table/index.js:10:9
31 verbose stack     at Array.reduce (<anonymous>)
31 verbose stack     at reduce (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/text-table/index.js:63:30)
31 verbose stack     at module.exports (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/text-table/index.js:9:20)
31 verbose stack     at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/outdated.js:130:16
31 verbose stack     at cb (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/slide/lib/async-map.js:47:24)
31 verbose stack     at outdated_ (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/outdated.js:221:12)
31 verbose stack     at skip (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/outdated.js:343:5)
31 verbose stack     at updateDeps (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/outdated.js:446:7)
31 verbose stack     at tryCatcher (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/bluebird/js/release/util.js:16:23)
31 verbose stack     at Promise.successAdapter [as _fulfillmentHandler0] (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/bluebird/js/release/nodeify.js:23:30)
31 verbose stack     at Promise._settlePromise (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/bluebird/js/release/promise.js:566:21)
32 verbose cwd /Users/dangranger
33 verbose Darwin 18.2.0
34 verbose argv "/usr/local/Cellar/node/11.11.0/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "outdated" "-g"
35 verbose node v11.11.0
36 verbose npm  v6.9.0
37 error Cannot read property 'length' of undefined
38 verbose exit [ 1, true ]

Can anyone help resolve this issue for me?

Thanks

Answer 1

If the ||'global' does not work, try these, it's what worked for me:

Open your cmd and Go to your root User folder such as C:\Users\User and run npm install -g npm@latest

this will update your npm to the latest version. Try your install again and should work fine now.

Additionally, you can use npm audit fix after the npm install -g npm@latest

Answer 2

If you do not want to go through the bother of uninstalling and reinstalling Node, you can manually edit the "lib/outdated.js" file located in the "npm/node_modules/npm" path with the patch from the npm Github site at npm "outdated -g" patch

The fix is as simple as adding "|| 'global'" to one line. Works fine and will stay in place until the next npm update.